Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh

1 review

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 
Well, I have to wait like 2 weeks for my hold on this 5th book to come in, so by the time I got it I was so ready to read it that I sprinted through it in basically a single sitting. I wasn't necessarily planning to....but here we are. 
 
This book is Dorian's story (one that I was definitely looking forward to). We all know he's a DarkRiver sentinel with latent changeling shape-shifting ability whose sister was killed by the Psy serial killer from the first book (an emotional hit that he is not dealing with particularly well). And in deep romance irony, his mate turns out to be a Psy herself, Ashaya, the M-Psy doing research for the Council on their hive mind implant plan who helped Tally's kids escape her research facility in the last book. This one opens with DarkRiver paying back their IOU from her help with that and "kidnapping" her son back from the Psy holding him hostage to ensure Ashaya's cooperation. And the drama and romance continue from there. 
 
Like I said, I raced through this 5th book in record time. I think it was in part that I had to wait for it and, honestly, in part because it was following my least favorite relationship to date (Clay and Talin). So, I was ready for a little romance redemption. And I got it. Dorian has a lot of internal stuff to deal with (being unable to shift, guilt over his sister's death), and Ashaya has a lot of family issues (how to protect her son, dealing with her sociopathic twin sister, having had to hide that Silence didn't work on her for her entire life), but what I liked is that, while some of their issues paralleled (sister stuff), it was also different enough that they could help each other through it without falling into unhealthy feedback loops/patterns. And of course, it was very convenient to the story, in that "romance novel" way, that Ashaya's DNA-medical specialty was the perfect one to help figure out Dorian's latency issue. Of note, there were less (and less compelling) steamy scenes in this book than in previous ones. In fact, I felt like Dorian and Ashaya were more an emotional match than a physical one in most ways and in general their physical chemistry was a bit sub-par compared to the rest, but I didn’t hate it. Sometimes, relationships are like that. Though I am reading this series, at least in part, for the steamy scenes, so I hope they come back strong. 
 
In addition to the romance, Singh continues to develop the over-arching story of the Psy-changeling-human interactions and conflicts. Due to Ashaya’s role in the Psy Council plans, we got a lot more insight into that group here, specifically some of Kaleb’s goals, as well as some of the internal splits among the rest of the Council members. Plus, just in general, the cracks in the Psy world are getting larger and you can tell an implosion is coming. We also got to see a bit more from other changeling groups outside the leopards and wolves (in particular, the rats – kinda ew, but also really well chosen considering their role). And for the first time ever, we are seeing some shadow powers in the human world start to get involved. After Talin’s intro as the first human love interest in the last book, that move makes sense here, as well as bring more depth into that third race in this tri-conflict (albeit clearly the one everyone writes off as weakest). 
 
Again, I applaud Singh for the way she is managing to keep these romances moving forwards with just enough fresh-ness to keep them interesting (situationally and in their relation to the overall plot advancements), while maintaining all the formulaic paranormal romance aspects that made me ready to start this series in the first place. And she’s doing it all while managing to keep previous couples relevant and getting on-page time, which is satisfying for me, personally. Anyways, a solid addition to the series and now I sit waiting impatiently for the next one (again).   
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